27 t/m 30 sept. 2007, Electron Breda
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Jack Stevenson
Totally Uncensored: A History of scandinavian Sex Cinema
In the night of Friday the 28th of September to Saturday the 29th of September, specialist Jack Stevenson presents the program Totally Uncensored, in which he tells in a colorful manner how the Scandinavian sex cinema conquered the world. ...more Jack Stevenson
...more Totally Uncensored


Grindhouse
On the festival attention is paid to Grindhouse films, too. The naam 'Grindhouse' refers to old cinemas in big American cities where movies were screened all day long. ...more


Al Adamson
To the works of B-movie king Al Adamson (1929 - 1995) a mini-retrospective is dedicated.
...more


Extreme
For die-hards with a strong stomach there is the theme program 'Extreme'. ...more


Aldir Mendes de Souza

Brazilian Aldir Mendes de Souza (1941 - 2007) is best remembered as one of the three most important Brazilian Color Field painters.

During the 60s and 70s, however, he was on the cutting edge of the Brazilian avant garde, producing innovating works in the visual arts and in film. Mendes de Souza�s foray into film began as he experimented with a new visual medium, the X-Ray.
Mendes de Souza was also a plastic surgeon, and one day while looking at some nose X-rays, he had the idea to use the X-Ray camera to photograph things that don�t usually appear in the doctor�s office. It was a new way of looking at everyday life, and he photographed things like cats, parrots, people smoking cigarettes and began preparing his work for the Arteonica Exposition in Sao Paulo in 1971, which was one of the first International Expositions of art and technology.

Then he came up with an idea. Using a 35mm Cardiology X-Ray Film Camera he filmed a short movie called Suicidio Brasileiro (Brazilian Suicide), which premiered at Arteonica. It was well received and as a result, Kodak, together with a Brazilian movie production company approached him and asked him to make a full-length commercial film using this technology.
The result was a very low-budget film, entitled O Homem que Descobriu o Invis�vel (The Man who Discovered the Invisible). It was the story of a mad scientist who discovered a loupe that enabled him to see everything in X-Ray. The movie was made on such a low budget that Mendes de Souza paid the leading actor with a free nose-job � undoubtedly a first in the history of film.
Mendes de Souza became furious when the studio changed the movie, adding commercial tricks like soft-core pornography scenes and changing the title to The Man Who Discovered the Naked Invisible. The movie was a commercial success, but Mendes de Souza was not happy with it which is why, in 2006, he edited a short excerpt called O Loupe de Riao X (The X-Ray Loupe), which he wanted to submit to a few underground film festivals before he died.

After finishing the project he had 40 reels left over. He sold 20 and used the rest to make another film, O Preto e Branco na Bienale com Rumo ao Guaruja (Black and White in the Biennial, Destination Guaruja). This short movie, which doesn�t use X-Ray technology, was meant, in Mendes de Souza�s own words, to be a �sub-underground, Brazilian re-interpretation of Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider�.

Mendes de Souza discovered the star actor Aldo Bueno, working as a janitor at the 1971 Biennial, while he was showing his work at the event. They became friends and started working together. As a result of the fame gathered, Bueno started a music and acting career and is now a well known Samba singer on the Sao Paulo scene.

The final movie on which Mendes de Souza worked, was the documentary Black Hole that was originally aimed to be about his painting career during the months leading up to his death in 2007. Mendes de Souza hijacked the movie half way through the filming and convinced the director to change the subject, from a documentary about his latest geometric painting phase, to a retrospective of his career, culminating with his appearance on his death bed at a Sao Paulo hospital. He passed away in January 2007.

To his work a retrospective is dedicated at the festival by meeans of screening the films Suicidio Brasileiro (Brazilian Suicide), O Loupe de Riao X (The X-Ray Loupe) and O Preto e Branco na Bienale com Rumo ao Guaruja (Black and White in the Biennial, Destination Guaruja), as well as the documentary Black Hole.

Screening:
Th. 27 Sept., 22.00 h, small auditorium upstairs
Su. 30 Sept., 18.00 h, small auditorium upstairs